In a turbulent time at Michael Waltrip Racing, the NASCAR group stated it would draw back its operations next season and that driver Brian Vickers had been lost for the remainder of this period.
MWR said Monday that it would field just two cars full time in the Sprint Cup series in 2014 — the No. 15 vehicle driven by Clint Bowyer as well as the No. 55 driven by Vickers — contrasted with three this year.
The 3rd vehicle, the No. 56 Toyota presently driven by Martin Truex Jr., will compete on a restricted routine next year, and MWR stated Truex was allowed to try to find another full-time ride somewhere else for 2014.
MWR, which is based in Cornelius, N.C., stated the cutback additionally would include a cutback of about 50 employees, or 15% of its workforce.
All of which is more fallout from a scandal that rocked the staff in September.
NASCAR discovered that MWR’s vehicles attempted to manipulate the result of the Sept. 7 competition in Richmond, Va., to assist Truex qualify for the sport’s Chase for the Cup playoff.
Truex had been removed from the Chase after being penalized by NASCAR, and his main sponsor, the NAPA vehicle components chain, stated it would drop its multimillion-dollar sponsorship after this season due to MWR’s actions.
“These days its about doing what we need to do, not what we desire to do,” MWR co-owner Rob Kauffman stated in a declaration.
Vickers, at the same time, had been discovered to have “a tiny bloodstream clot” in his right calf that needed the driver to be placed on bloodstream-thinning medications, taking him out for the rest of this season, the group stated.
The 29-year-old Vickers, who’d experienced a blood-clotting condition that took him out for the best part of 2010, looks set to jump right back in next season after MWR had announced in August that Vickers would drive the No. 55 car full time in 2014.
“If there’s anything positive to come out of this, is that it’s only a temporary setback” Vickers stated.
Waltrip himself is planned to drive the No. 55 at the next competition, at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama on Sunday. MWR said Vickers’ replacement for the last four races of this season will be announced at a later date.